Lack Blind Purged

kjv@2Peter:1:9@ But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

Before we examine the daily area's specifically that Jesus wants to transform us in and be of substantial influence over, lets us take a look at one more preliminary to the proper ApplicationsOfTheLikePreciousFaith: spiritual blindness/short shortsightedness and the influences of our former nature.

Practical Aspects

We left off previously at the importance of the phrase "in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" to our considerations toward "like precious" faith applications. Let's put another way: what benefit does a man with Jesus have that a man without Jesus (or a Jesus of lesser form) doesn't have in this broad spiritually productive regard? What fruit might he expect that the other could not manufacture himself?

In the preface to this series I spoke of my growing concern that many Christians that I meet (judging by the types of personal problems and set backs they find themselves in currently) are exhibiting a faith that is evidently of such little use to their situations let alone being useful to the Lord to whom they believe so deeply for their future eternal salvation. Knowing Jesus Christ and the operation of the Holy Spirit the bit that I do, I refuse to believe that this is a problem on THEIR side of the faith equation, rather it is a issue on our part. If this fault of ours can be considered causing a "lack", I would say that likely it is not for the lack of faith in Jesus, but for the shortsightedness even unto blindness in many cases in what He intends to be the position and make up of our faith here and now in our daily affairs. He intends to be a much greater influence than we presently allow. Are we agreed?

If we were to consider "lack" in this regard further it might be thought of as things not being there; the person did not either know what was spiritually available or chose not to operate in it; this would be the blind option. Even more curious is the shortsighted option in which the items were perhaps implemented, but either not fully implemented to the extent needed or fully implemented toward a very narrow target or goal. I can think of some potential causes of this: the person is simply responding to events as they are occurring and has done little in preparing for them, the person is focused on one specific thing (or a smaller subset) and not on all things, the effort is not made to fully sustain what had already been gained.

There are some other things that might be considered and inventoried:

We have it as God fighting our battle instead of us fighting HIS (this happened frequently to Old Testament Israel).

One battle is won and continuing preparations are left behind as if the war was over.

The pain point is attacked but the underlying cause for the pain neglected.

Half and half: what I think with what God thinks mixed in.

Seeing what is near but not what is far.

Done the way others have done it or as the way I had successfully done it before.

Getting in with the least amount of investment or effort.

Resistance towards reproof and correction making the second effort unproductive in the same way as the first.

Forgetting that one has been purged of one's old sins.

Typically in the course of counseling it obvious to the professional counselor the many things that one would logically expect to have been done by the patient not to have been done; this while the patient is convinced that everything has been done and that there is little else that can be done. One would easily expect that had any of these practical steps be taken that the situation would have been much different. Where the professional really earns his/her keep is in discerning the much more subtle needs of redirecting the rational (though blind/shortsighted/poorly coordinated) efforts that have been made, directing them onward toward better more productive gains.

When it comes to the "like precious" matters, the counselor is one person and one person only: Jesus Christ, and the thing initially lacked most is our not having gone to Him for counsel much sooner and much more often. Even when we do, we tend to take His words and bend them into what we wanted to hear. I am not sure that there is much hard and true method for keeping one's self away from this lack. There have been devout monks that have secluded themselves and devoted themselves to nothing but this one on one time who by all that structure and method are just as guilty of this lack. It is not the quantity nor condition of the time spent apparently that proves out, but the quality of the heart during that time; there is very little method to that except for true sincerity.